In a state where winter isn’t optional, you’d think reliable heat wouldn’t be either. Yet, Colorado’s Public Utilities Commission seems increasingly comfortable with discarding the very energy source that keeps the majority of households in the state warm: natural gas. Residents are not thinking about long-term regulatory frameworks when they go to turn up the heat in January. They are asking much simpler questions: Will their homes stay warm, and can they afford it? This is what makes Colorados current energy trajectory so puzzling and, increasingly, troubling. Natural gas continues to be the backbone of the states energy sphere even as lawmakers at the Capitol seem determined to ignore that fact. A recent report published by the Advance Colorado Institute, “ Gas: Clean, Affordable, Reliable Energy for Colorado,” underscores a point that should be central to the energy policy discussion: natural gas is not a marginal resource in Colorado. It is foundational.…